A typical prior art head and disk system 10 is illustrated in FIG. 1. In operation the magnetic transducer 20 is supported by the suspension 13 as it flies above the disk 16. The magnetic transducer 20, usually called a “head” or “slider,” is composed of elements that perform the task of writing magnetic transitions (the write head 23) and reading the magnetic transitions (the read head 12). The electrical signals to and from the read and write heads 12, 23 travel along conductive paths (leads) 14 which are attached to or embedded in the suspension 13. The magnetic transducer 20 is positioned over points at varying radial distances from the center of the disk 16 to read and write circular tracks (not shown). The disk 16 is attached to a spindle 18 that is driven by a spindle motor 24 to rotate the disk 16. The disk 16 comprises a substrate 26 on which a plurality of thin films 21 are deposited. The thin films 21 include ferromagnetic material in which the write head 23 records the magnetic transitions in which information is encoded.
The conventional disk 16 consists of a substrate 26 of AlMg with an electroless coating of NiP which has been highly polished. The thin films 21 on the disk 16 typically include a chromium or chromium alloy underlayer which is deposited on the substrate 26. The ferromagnetic layer in the thin films is based on various alloys of cobalt. For example, a commonly used alloy is CoPtCr. Additional elements such as tantalum and boron are often used in the magnetic alloy. A protective overcoat layer is used to improve wearability and corrosion. The three film disk described above is only one of the many possible structures. Various seed layers, multiple underlayers and laminated magnetic films have all been described in the prior art.
In particular, seed layers have been suggested for use with substrate materials such as glass. Typically the seed layer is a relatively thin layer which is the initial film deposited on the substrate and is followed by the underlayer. Materials proposed for use as seed layers include chromium, titanium, tantalum, NiP, MgO, carbon, tungsten, RuAl, AlN, FeAl and NiAl. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,789,056 to Bian, et al., the use of a CrTi seed layer is described. The underlayers mentioned are Cr, CrV and CrTi.
The convention for alloy composition used in this application gives the atomic percentage of an element as a subscript; for example, CoCr31 is 31 atomic percent Cr with the balance being Co and CoPt14Cr18B8 is 14 atomic percent Pt, 18 atomic percent Cr and 8 atomic percent B with the balance being Co.